Chapter 58#
His Holiness, the Pope Who Scatters the Light of Sanctity#
Minister was having tea again today.
Sip tea, read a closing report, stamp it — such was the delightful life of a civil servant of the Underworld.
Executor No. 666. Case File No. 0003.
Upon seeing the name of this person specifically flagged for special attention by the higher-ups, the Minister set down his teacup with great care.
A derived worldline — no romance storyline. This was a commission target I handpicked for him specifically. There shouldn’t be any hiccups this time, right? The Minister nodded inwardly in approval.
Completion rate: 100%. Worldline stability: 100%. Special situation: Worldline upgrade.
The Minister rubbed his eyes. The words hadn’t changed. He rubbed them again, unwilling to believe what he was seeing. Worldline upgrade?! How could it be a worldline upgrade!
A worldline upgrade was no trivial matter. While the origin worldline from which this derived worldline had split was indeed upgraded, that had been discussed and approved at a regular joint conference among numerous confidential departments. The procedure for upgrading a worldline was exceedingly complex. Not only did the worldline have to meet the upgrade criteria, but multiple rounds of calculation and verification were required to prove it wouldn’t trigger any chain reactions, after which the Control Department would finally unlock the upgrade restriction.
This derived worldline, after splitting off and becoming a parallel worldline, was no longer the same as the origin worldline. Just because the origin worldline could be upgraded didn’t mean this derived one could. A worldline upgrade that bypassed proper procedure had the potential to cause a collapse in the worldline chain.
The Minister nearly jumped out of his skin again. Ever since No. 666 had joined the workforce, he’d grown several more white hairs. Last time, he’d even sneakily gone to the head of the Meng Po Department to ask for beauty maintenance secrets, only to be thoroughly mocked and come back in disgrace.
No matter what anomalies occur with No. 666, do not handle them privately — report directly to me.
The Minister recalled Judge No. 1’s instructions from last time. He took several deep breaths, then pulled up the database on his computer. Sure enough, the worldline chain was perfectly stable, with no signs whatsoever of collapse or disconnection.
Fingers flying, the Minister began typing up his report to the superiors. As for this closing report, he once again retrieved the stamp of “Pending Determination.”
Lu Heng, having received the “Pending Determination” evaluation, was of mixed feelings. If he’d earned another S-rank for this mission, he could have leveled up. With a level-up, the little assistant would have greater access privileges to search the database for the next commission. And yet, here was another stamp of “Pending Determination.”
“Little Assistant, this time there wasn’t any Chosen One romance storyline, and nothing broke. Why is it pending again?”
“I don’t know anything. Who am I? Where am I? What am I doing here?” The little Assistant transformed itself into the shape of a salted fish, sprawling flat on the desk.
“What’s wrong with you?”
“I’ve suddenly lost my dream.”
“Then, please tell me your dream.” While waiting for the commission target to arrive, things were pretty boring, so Lu Heng started exchanging banter with the little Assistant.
“My dream is to cultivate a 3S-rank executor. But before that, I set myself a small goal — to upgrade my memory capacity once this commission was complete.” The little Assistant remained in its salted fish form. “However, this stamp of Pending Determination destroyed everything.”
A faint pang of guilt surfaced in Lu Heng’s heart, but before it could fully take root, it was interrupted by the commission target who pushed open the door.
The moment this person appeared, Lu Heng felt an urge to stand up and bow. He had hair the color of warm, gentle morning light, light golden, woven into neat braids that fell behind his back. He wore a white ceremonial robe embroidered with golden patterns, with a luxurious outer robe of pale gold layered over it, and he held a golden, openwork scepter.
The oppressive air brought by this extravagantly resplendent attire vanished without a trace the moment this person smiled. What remained was nothing but a gaze brimming with warmth and sanctity.
“May the Light be with you. I am Joseph Borgia the Sixth.”
Joseph Borgia the Sixth.
He came from a remarkable worldline — a world populated by many races, where humans, dragons, elves, dwarves, beastmen, and others coexisted in a mixed society. Each race had its own patron deity. Among them, the most numerous race, humanity, worshiped the God of Light.
The Church of Light had, naturally, become the most powerful faction in this worldline. The Pope of the Church of Light could be considered the most powerful and exalted person on the entire continent. On the continent, the western lands belonged to the Bega Empire, the eastern lands to the Nosoli Republic, and between these two superpowers lay a dozen or so small principalities that were dependent upon either the Empire or the Republic.
Beyond those small principalities was the Papal State — smallest in territory, yet one that no one could afford to overlook. Though modest in size, it occupied a position of supreme importance. Whether it was the coronation of an emperor or the inauguration of a prime minister, the mandatory procedure was always to travel to the Papal State to receive the power of holy light bestowed by the Pope.
Beyond these human nations, there were the elves, who lived in the Forest of Elves along the continent’s borders. But that was a thing of long ago. The white elves of this era had already emerged from the Forest of Elves and gradually integrated into human society.
There were also the dwarves, who dwelled in the Boulderstone Mountains and maintained active trade with humanity, with frequent exchange. Seeing dwarves in the major cities of the human realms was hardly anything unusual.
Living alongside the dwarves in the Boulderstone Mountains were the goblins. However, the goblins had always resided underground, and their relationship with the dwarves was one of irreconcilable hostility.
The only ones who had absolutely no interaction with humans were, perhaps, the great dragons who lived on Dragon Island. Dragon Island floated above the continent, and humans had no way of reaching it. Moreover, the dragons had always been arrogant and lazy, entirely uninterested in engaging with the human race.
The most recent news about the great dragons had been two hundred years ago. If not for that floating island ever-presently displaying its existence, the legends of the great dragons would probably not even be found in the poems of bards anymore.
At the continent’s northernmost reaches lay the territory of the beastmen — humanity’s hereditary enemies. Due to the humiliating history of being enslaved by humanity, the beastmen had always regarded humans as mortal enemies. No human was ever permitted to set foot in beastmen territory.
Along the border between human and beastmen lands stood a crude barrier wall built haphazardly from dead branches. Such a wall was naturally incapable of providing any real defense — it was merely erected by the beastmen to intimidate any foolhardy humans who dared trespass. On each towering branch, a human head was impaled. These were the heads of humans who had either strayed in by accident or deliberately invaded beastmen territory.
The beastmen, the goblins, and the dark elves — who were said to have remained deep within the Forest of Elves — were all classified by humanity as belonging to the evil faction.
Joseph Borgia the Sixth was the first and only Pope in history to be publicly executed. His crime: colluding with the races of the evil faction, betraying humanity, and plotting to incite turmoil within the Papal Church.
After the Pope’s execution, the Church of Light fell into swift decline. On the continent, power had once been divided among three forces — warriors who cultivated martial qi, mages who commanded the mysteries of the elements, and priests who channeled the power of the God of Light. With the decline of the Church of Light, the priests who wielded the power of the God of Light gradually vanished from this land.
People thought nothing of it — after all, there were still martial qi and magic available for cultivation. However, then the nightmare arrived.
The Undead Legion tore through the boundary between life and death, emerging from the Dark Gate onto this continent. Without the power of the God of Light — the natural bane of the undead — the living beings of the continent had no means whatsoever to stem the tide of their collapse.
Almost the entire continent became an endless expanse of death. The surviving living beings huddled within the former Church of Light territories, relying on the remnant power of the God of Light to protect the spark of life. After enduring a century of barely clinging to survival, a turning point appeared, and the living sounded the horn of counterattack.
Once the Undead Legion had been driven out and order restored, that dark era came to be called the Age of Cataclysm. And the exposure of Joseph Borgia the Sixth’s alleged collusion with the evil faction became the very starting point of the Age of Cataclysm. The arrival of the Undead Legion was, in the historical records, described as having been orchestrated single-handedly by the ambitious schemer Pope Joseph Borgia.
Naturally, none of this was Joseph’s doing. Quite the opposite — the turning point that allowed the continent’s living beings to sound the horn of counterattack was in fact the chess piece Joseph had placed long ago. Word of the Undead Legion’s impending arrival had already been delivered through divine oracle within the Papal Church. It was simply that Joseph’s grand scheme had not yet been fully laid out before he was publicly executed.
“My commission is this: find a way to complete the scheme, and prevent the Church of Light from declining before the Undead Legion arrives. Only with the power of the God of Light intact can the living beings of the continent endure until the moment when the scheme finally takes effect.”
Lu Heng nodded. “I accept the commission. Underworld Bureau, Soul Purification Department, No. 666 — at your service.”
After the commission target departed, Lu Heng once again had the routine matter of having the little Assistant search the database for useful information.
“In a worldline this vast, there are indeed traces of a Chosen One.” After a thorough search, the little Assistant reported.
“Who is it?”
“The Emperor of the Bega Empire. Tsk tsk, this one is quite the schemer. The Pope’s public execution — there’s virtually no part of it that doesn’t bear the shadow of his machinations.” The little Assistant flipped through files while clicking its tongue in astonishment.
“Speaking of which, why did he want to kill the Pope?” The little Assistant was genuinely puzzled. The Pope of the Church of Light, though exalted far beyond compare, never intervened in the internal affairs of human nations. He shouldn’t have posed any obstacle to the Emperor.
“For an extreme schemer, divine authority surpassing imperial authority is absolutely intolerable.” This sort of psychology, of course, was beyond the comprehension of the system known as the Little Assistant, but Lu Heng could offer some explanation. “Alright then — what exactly is the scheme the Pope intends to lay out?”
“Regretfully, I must inform you: insufficient permissions. Permissions.”
“Little Assistant, why do I feel like my permissions have actually shrunk after my rank-up? The very first two commissions — the worldline plot details were incredibly thorough.” Lu Heng found this very strange.
“That was the rookie bonus,” the little Assistant said.
Lu Heng felt that rather than calling it a rookie bonus, it was more like a trap designed to lure newcomers into the workforce like cattle, giving them the illusion that commissions were easy. But what could be done? The missions still had to be carried out. All he could do was jump in first and figure things out as he went along.
Who knows what kind of role that person will be playing in this worldline this time. Lu Heng felt a measure of anticipation. As for whether that person would inevitably show up — Lu Heng had not the slightest doubt.
He had said he would wait for him. So he would definitely appear.